Can I purchase a Lander ticket to get my group of 5 from Berlin to Rothenberg ob der Tauber? I can't tell from the links if that pass would work. And what would be the cheapest way to get us from Paris to Frankfurt by train? Thank you.
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
Länder tickets are valid in the Land (German state) which issues them, not all over Germany. So from Berlin, you would need Länder-Tickets for Brandenburg, for Sachsen, and for Bayern. (A Sachsen-Ticket is also valid in Sachsen-Anhalt and Thüringen.) All three would total €82 (I think) for the five of you. Those tickets are not quantity limited. They are always available from a ticket automat, or for €2 more for each ticket from a counter.
If you go from Berlin to Rothenburg by regional trains on a weekend day, a single Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket, for €37, would cover your group the entire way.
For Paris to Frankfurt, since there are no Länder-Tickets for France, Europa-Spezial Frankreich ticket, starting from €39 pP would probably be your best bet. Europa-Spezial tickets have to be pre-purchased on the Bahn website, are train and date specific, and are non-refundable.
Posted by
OP
Kyle, TX, USA
92 posts
Lee, Thank you SO much for the information.We are traveling on a Saturday, so that will be a great price. Your advice is helping shape our trip, piece by piece!
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
By purchasing in advance from the German Rail website, you can also get a SparPreis fare for 5 adults for as low as €109. If some of the travelers are under 15 years, they would be free (€20 less) on a Sparpreis fare. A Sparpreis fare has to include at least one leg of travel on an express train (ICE/IC/EC).
An express train connection can make that trip in 5-6 hrs with 3 changes of trains vs. about 10 hrs and 4 changes by regional trains.
That is an extremely popular route and the least expensive Sparpreis fares sell out almost immediately after the tickets go on sell 92 days in advance (I did find €109 Sparpreis fares for May 15 on an ICE leaving Berlin at 7:52; later in the day the fare was higher).
Posted by
Lakewood, Colorado
19274 posts
If you can't get a low Sparpreis fare, a faster than regional, albeit somewhat more expensive, routing would be to take a Connex train from Berlin to Leipzig (1h 20m) and use a Schönes-Wochenende-Ticket from there. Connex charges €14 for adults from Berlin to Leipzig if purchased online (the website, unfortunately, is in German).